aka. Frank de Jojo/Zero dB/The Oki Bass
Neil Combstock (aka Frank de Jojo) is one half of the nujazz/latin/breakbeat/ dirtybassline producers Zero dB (the other half being Chris Vogado aka The Vogado Projects), who are responsible for releases on their London/Barcelona based record label Fluid Ounce.
Their success started with the wicked jazz house anthem ‘Come Party’ in 2000, which was picked up by a multitude of DJs such as Gilles Peterson, Kruder & Dorfmeister, Kyoto Jazz Massive and Jazzanova amongst others, and hailed as a classic. The success of ‘Come Party’ was followed by release of another classic, a Frank de Jojo solo project, ‘Turn Off The Lights’, which reached number 11 in the Gilles Peterson All- winners chart of 2000, as voted for by listeners of Worldwide, BBC Radio 1. The overwhelming response from these and other tracks led Zero dB into remix work for the likes of Peter Kruder’s Peace Orchestra, Truby Trio, Grupo Batoque, John Kong/Moonstarr, Interference, Suba, and many more. Zero dB’s killer remix of the Suba track ‘Samba Do Gringo Paulista’ was named as Gilles Peterson’s track of the year in 2001 and led to a joint Zero dB/Gilles Peterson remix project of Sun Ra’s ‘The Satellites Are Spinning’. Following heavy DJing around the world through 2002/2003, Zero dB released a compilation of all the remixes under the name ‘Reconstruction’ with reviews such as Straight No Chaser’s ‘This album is a testament to the revolution of reconstructing as a stand-alone art form’(http://www.ubiquityrecords.com/ur127.html). 2004 sees Frank de Jojo release the haunting jazz/house track ‘Come Home Baby’ to enormous worldwide acclaim and Zero dB complete a monster drum and bass remix of Nicola Conte/Rosalia De Souza’s ‘Maria Moita’ for Schema records, Italy. 2005 sees Zero dB complete work on a much anticipated full album project of brand new material called Bongos. Bleeps and Basslines which was licensed by Ninja Tune and released in September 2006 along with a Worldwide Promotional tour. The best review that summed up the album was from Stephen Worthy, Sept 2006, Mixmag UK, “This is modern, nutty jazziness, conceived in clubland rather than a smoky speakeasy. In fact, this is the best Ninja Tune release in half a decade *****”
2007 sees Zero dB headline the Yebisu Garden Hall New Year’s Eve Party 2007 Tokyo, along with Gilles Peterson, Soil and Pimp Sessions, Jazztronic and others entertaining an ecstatic 4000+crowd and a continued asian/European/Australasian tour and remixes for Bonobo, Raphael Sebbag (UFO) and DJ Kentaro.
2008 sees Ninja Tune release the much anticipated Bongos, Bleeps and Bassline remix album named ‘Heavyweight Gringos’ including remixes of Zero dB tracks from artists such as Toshio Matsuura, Raphael Sebbag, Inverse Cinematics, Moonstarr, Tony Nwachukwe (Attica Blues) amongst others. 2009 will see a compilation album coming out on the label of the moment, Tru Thoughts! The album will be called One-Offs, Remixes and B-Sides, consisting 2 cds worth of material new and old from both Zero dB members, bringing together a vast collection of material from the past 10 years by both Neil Combstock and Chris Vogado with their various aliases, Zero dB, Frank De Jojo, Dave Da Gato, Vogado Projects, Zzouf and The Oki Bass. Neil also continues work on a forthcoming solo album project named the working title ‘The Oki Bass’.
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